America Getting Fatter

U.S.& Latin America - U.S. News to Note

December 15, 2000

ATLANTA -- The American waistline continues to expand, with 61 percent of adults now considered overweight, the government reported Thursday. And a growing number of Americans are not just overweight, but obese, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. More than one-third of adults, 35 percent, are slightly or moderately overweight, up from 33 percent in the last survey, which covered 1988-94. More than a quarter of Americans, 26 percent, are considered obese, or grossly overweight, compared with 23 percent in the last survey.